Hi, I am currently 13 weeks pregnant and taking suboxone. I am at the end of my taper and what feels like the end of my rope. Today I even wondered if I should consider the methadone clinic again (a moment of weakness and a bad idea, I'm almost there)...I really need some help. If you take the time to read this, thank you. If you can offer me some advice, I am grateful for you! I'll take any help that I can get.

I have actually tapered myself down to .125 twice a day and feel stable at this dose. That is the good news. The bad news is that I am already high risk, since I will deliver at age 36, have a history of preterm labor, and blood work has shown that I already have gestational diabetes on top of everything.

I spoke with my OB about the suboxone, and he was adamant that I stop asap. He is an OB that prescribes subutex so I thought he would understand and support a slow taper but because I do not have an initial legal prescription and I am at such a low dose, he said I just need to stop because any withdrawal is "all in my head" and CPS will be "a pain." I'll leave those issues for another day.

As a brief backstory, I have been on bupe for appx 2 years. Initially it was a back surgery that lead to dependence on oxy/hydrocodone. Then in 2011, I unexpectedly became pregnant. My then OB (no longer delivers), knowing I was dependent on pain meds (legally, oh the irony), sent me to a local Methadone clinic. I was clueless as to what I was getting into. Long story short, I am now at the end of my suboxone taper 3 years later and hope to never have to hear the word opiate again. But, I digress...

I had been down to .5 mg for sometime before becoming pregnant and immediately began to taper when I found out. Here comes the problem...I have tried to jump off 4 times in the past month with no success, even at only taking .25mg/day. The withdrawals are real for me, even at such a low dose! The RLS is what I call my trigger symptom. I can wade through the others (gastrointestinal, lethargy, cold sweats, runny eyes, gooseflesh, etc), but RLS puts me to taking a dose almost immediately when they come. I cave.

So I need any and all advice I can get to go that extra mile and jump off. Recently, I have been trying the following:

Keeping a written log of my doses so I can space my time properly and monitor.Reducing every other dose to .0625 (This is uncomfortable but tolerable.)I take a high quality prenatal vitamin with probiotic as well as a prenatal fish oil supp.I take Cymbalta for depression and fibromyalgia pain.I have Imodium, Zofran, and Diclegis as comfort meds for gastro upset.And lots of baths and prayer.

Every thought of withdrawal brings with it a fear that something will happen to my baby (they really preached that at the Methadone clinic). But I do believe that at such a low dose, my risks are minimized and I really would like to avoid a fight with CPS. I just want this to be over and to continue with a healthy pregnancy and baby.

Ok first of all, are you legally taking it now? If so, you shouldn't have any CPS problems. You may need to explain to them the situation, but no issues. I know where I live, CPS probably won't even show up, the medication is prescribed to me legally, and there is no reason for them to even come question me. Second, have you tried stopping one of your daily doses for a week or two, and then jumping? So decrease to .125 a day, then when you are stable on that either stop from there, or I would start taking .125 every other day. Give yourself a little break from the withdrawals at the very end. I know how hard it is, but you are very lucky to be so low already. I have tapered from about 16mgs to .8mgs. I was stuck for about 1 1/2 weeks at 1mg, just tired of feeling crappy. But finally have gotten the nerve to decrease my dose again. I was doing it via the liquid taper method, but I really don't like it that way. So I've been cutting 2mg pills into 8's giving me approx .25 pieces and am currently taking 3 a day (so I guess I'm taking. 75 a day) as soon as I stabilize ill cut out one of those pieces decreasing to .5mg. Im in a time crunch tho, im 32 weeks and would really like to be completely off for atleast 3 weeks before I deliver. Good luck and keep us posted.

Hi Steph, can't give you any info on Sub's withdrawal and pregnancy, but I can say that I jumped from Sub's 3 months ago, and it was totally manageable. I'm really happy that I'm finally druf-free, after using opiates of one type or another for almost 15 years.

RLS was not a major problem for me, but insomnia was, and I took clonadine as needed to help w/ sleep.

I think fear of going drug free was the worst part of my taper, but once I finally jumped, there was no looking back.

Good luck.

-- ji

_________________"Past and future veil God from our sight; burn both of them with fire."-- Rumi, Sufi poet and teacher

You are so close Steph! You can do it! I detoxed off subutex with my first baby and she was fine. And I went from 4 mg to nothing. (Medically supervised--but she was fine) The doctor who watched over me said he does it all the time and that the hype about we hurting baby is just that--hype. Not that in saying there is no chance of it, but it's not likely outside of severe cases.

I'm stuck at 2 mg and 18 weeks with no script this time around. Be proud of yourself for getting this low. Do you have a script?

I do not have a legal script at this point. So that is an issue. I'm not even sure if anyone would subscribe to me since I'm pregnant, and rumors are that the waiting lists are huge. The clinics around here are getting shut down left and right. I'm already seeing the OB who specifically prescribes them, and he says get off of them so I think this is my only choice. Plus, I'm just sooo ready not to be attached to anything anymore. I also don't want to have to worry when baby is born. I'm not sure if I have ever wanted this more!

So I'm not completely off subs yet, but am down to about .125 every 24 hours, going on 36 hours this time around! I did try to do .0625 twice per day, but that didn't work for me whatever reason. When I went back to once per day, I did better. I have had a little gastro upset the last couple of days, but today I feel good. Once I get to the place of feeling good, I like to stay there for a week or two. If I try to decrease immediately again, I get drained and mentally exhausted and give up too easy. I feel better if I give myself a little break.

After delivering my daughter while on over 100 mg of methadone daily and going through that intense anxiety and every worry it brings, I am confident that I can do this for me and my baby. And good luck!!! to all of you. It is doable, and I feel like I would know because I can be a real weeny when it comes to this stuff lol. It's what got me here in the first place. Now its obvious, though...I either pay up front when I'm in pain or in the end when I come off the opiates that have been masking the pain; but either way, there is sacrifice.

Hi Steph can you update? I am currently on my 3rd day not taking subutex from .25 mg/day...this is hard! But at times its doable and then I've gotten through another day, just wondering how you're doing and if you're okay

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